


Word Search

by Dathen



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Agender Jon, Autistic Jon, Autistic Sasha, Friendship, Gen, Gender Exploration, No Spoilers, Nonbinary Jon, Nonbinary Sasha, T4TMA Week (The Magnus Archives)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28635405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dathen/pseuds/Dathen
Summary: Despite the unwelcome shift his promotion brought to their interactions, rambling about linguistics with Jon was an easy pastime to fall back on.--Featuring burgeoning Jon and Sasha friendship, mutual infodumping, and Fun with Gender (or lack thereof).  Set during early season 1.
Relationships: Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 31
Kudos: 130
Collections: t4tma week 2021





	Word Search

Sasha fidgeted with her jewelry. It wasn’t the usual nervous energy that she rode like an ocean wave while chasing down a lead or digging into a subject that snagged her attention. No, today, she just felt...off. Was it the new outfit? It was a bit dressier than her usual trousers-and-cardigan style, with a full length skirt that she’d _finally_ found to be long enough for her height, and a scarf that she bought for the soft texture alone. Maybe it was the jewelry…? But that was the same as she usually wore, and yet each time she passed the mirrors in the break room or washroom that off-balance feeling returned. Finally, she gave in to the impulse to take off her earrings before snatching a file from her desk and marching towards Jon’s office. A distraction would help.

“Found that statement you said was missing in the sequence, Jon,” Sasha announced as she opened the door and poked her head in. (Oh good, he wasn’t recording. Though she was pretty sure the others were exaggerating how grumpy Jon got when interrupted; he never seemed too bothered when she dropped by out of unannounced boredom.) “Looks like it’s still missing a page, though—no translation with it.”

Sasha was surprised that Jon’s answering sigh didn’t send papers flying off his desk. “If it was translated at all. Nothing about the state of this place would surprise me,” he answered. Jon took the offered file and peered at it with what was now a too-common scowl, but the sourness radiated exhaustion.

Oh, he was wearing earrings again today. Small silver hoops not too different from a pair she saw Tim wear sometimes. _I wish I could look like that when I wear earrings_. She stomped on that thought with a short shake of her head. Where on earth did that come from? 

“Looks like my staples were a good idea,” she pressed on with as much brightness as she could muster. “At least if we get a translated copy, we can be sure it won’t get separated from the rest.”

The tired scowl melted into a tired smile. “Thank you, Sasha. That has been a very helpful solution.”

The gratitude in his voice stifled the usual irritation she felt at being called "helpful" by someone she’d seen fidgeting before his first interview with Mr. Bouchard. How someone who’d been hired during her _fourth_ year here ended up with her dream job...no, she wasn’t in the mood to wallow in that on top of everything. Instead, she flopped down into the chair across from him. “Mandarin, looks like. Don’t we have a sister institute in Beijing? The Pu Songling Research Centre? Maybe it’s from their archives.”

Jon hummed. “We can inquire if they originally lent it to the Institute; I don’t know if they translate to other languages in their collection, but perhaps they could put us in touch with someone who can…?” 

“Either that or run it through the ol’ google translate. My Mandarin is a bit rusty.” At that Jon laughed, a tight-lipped huff of a thing. He used to laugh a lot more before his promotion, and she found she missed it. Sasha grinned before she continued. “I did try learning some once! When I was sixteen. I thought the writing was so nice, and wanted to impress my Gran. Didn’t last long, though.” 

“I’ve heard it’s remarkably difficult to learn,” he said. 

“Oh, for sure. Switching to French was easier, though I wasn’t a fan of memorizing word genders for everything.” Her thoughts skipped ahead a step or two, and she found herself adding, “Did you know that Mandarin only has a single pronoun for all genders?” 

Predictably, Jon brightened and sat up in his chair, suddenly looking like someone who’d slept sometime in the past few days. Despite the unwelcome shift his promotion brought to their interactions, rambling about linguistics with Jon was an easy pastime to fall back on. “Is that so?” 

“Yup! I won’t pretend that the rest of the grammar wasn’t brutal, but that almost made me jealous, you know?” Sasha answered, toying with the edge of the cardboard folder.

Jon’s attention was like a physical weight. “Jealous how?”

“Dunno, I kind of wish English had something similar, you know? Instead of needing words that say right out ‘I’m a woman’ or ‘I’m a man!’” She kept her voice light, but shifted in the stiff-backed chair. Sasha hadn’t expected the sudden discomfort, but saying the words aloud felt suddenly vulnerable, like pressing a finger just beside an old bruise—just enough to ache.

The Encyclopedia Look immediately fell over Jon’s face (apparently, according to Tim, Sasha had one too; she wondered if it was as obvious as his). “You know, even in English some people use singular ‘they’ for their pronouns. It’s been used as a singular gender-neutral pronoun for hundreds of years; examples easily date back to the fourteenth century. Did you know that ‘you’ used to be plural as well?”

“I did know that! And formal, too—it’s funny to think how ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ were the informal means of address.” Sasha forced down the urge to continue the thought; English shedding the formality divisions in its grammar was a subject she could talk about for hours, but she was curious where this was going. “Still, I had my papers marked up with enough _use ‘he or she,’ not ‘they’!_ back in secondary to know I can’t get away with it now.”

“That’s changing,” said Jon with a sudden fervor. “And besides, people aren’t research papers.”

Sasha hesitated, that off-balance feeling suddenly returning. It wasn’t discomfort this time, but why did it suddenly feel so personal?

Jon seemed to notice her faltering. “O-of course, it’s not the only way to depart from the binary,” he rushed on. “I mean, I still use 'he/him' because those are comfortable for me, and—“ He froze, eyes flicking towards the wall before he picked up the statement and held it in front of him like a shield. “A-anyway, ah...yes. If someone asked me, I’d have no issue using ‘they’ for someone who asked me. Regardless of what the _Chicago Manual of Style_ has to say about it.”

It didn’t seem to be a pointed comment (except a grudge against the style guide), but Sasha felt the sudden conviction it was meant for her, even if _Jon_ didn’t mean it for her. Sasha felt the familiar bite of curiosity that she knew wouldn’t let go, but for once she wasn’t sure if it was directed outwards or inwards. But Jon looked a bit flustered, still feigning interest in the unreadable document in his hands, and it was getting near the time that she agreed to meet Tim for lunch. “Good to know,” she answered easily, then tapped the top of the statement. “I’d best get back to work—let me know if you hear back from the Research Centre.”

She had some thinking to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the Magnus Writers discord for answering the absurd amount of questions and fact-checking I somehow needed for a 1k word fic, to evanescentjasmine and Ixempt for the beta reads, and to TheDeafProphet for inspiring the concept! Also an extra shout-out to the Magnus Writers mod team for being my own Linguistics Mutual Infodumping Squad.


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